Last post June 29th, wow. Actually that date is very significant. Especially when it is seen as a contributor as to why it has been so long since my last post. You see, as I have mentioned in blogs past, I work for Verizon Communications as a Central Office Technician. I can say upfront that I am very thankful for my job, it's pay and benefits so I certainly won't use this space to complain about that. Now concerning that date ..... In the months leading up to that point in time Verizon announced that it would be spinning off 13 wireline states, of which West Virginia was one, in fact it would be the most wholistically spun off. These 13 states would be spun off by May 2010 and operate independently, in essence they would become a 'Baby Bell.' North Central would be their designation, I know... they could have come up with something better than that. Doesn't really make sense because some of the 'Spinco' is in California! This Spinco would operate autonomously for two months and then be absorbed by Frontier Communications. Anyway, tension and speculation would abound until all union personnel w/ over 30 years (retirement eligible) were worked into a frenzy about losing everything, pension, benefits, pay, etc. So they all retired ........ I mean every one of them! Which was roughly half of our work force!! May I say that we were at minimum staffing levels before June 29th! June 30th was their last day and that began a period of unreal workload and overtime, the likes of which I had never seen. I actually worked more overtime in 2009 than I had in the 4 maybe 5 years prior. It was daylight to dark, fastfood, etc., I actually worked so late on at least two occassions that driving home and driving back in the morning would have only left a two hour nap so I elected to sleep on the couch in my office.
At some point through it all my little girl actually asked my wife, "Has daddy forgotten where we live." I went as hard as I could go for 3 months and then on October 8th I went into the hospital to have my knee replaced! I went from wide slam open to shut completely down in one day! I had one of the country's best surgeons, Timothy Krimchek- Cincinnati Reds Orthopedic Surgeon, stayed at a brand new hospital at West Chester, began therapy the day after I got home from the hospital at the Bellefonte Vitality Center and pushed everything as hard as I could. So much so that the therapists told me that my motion and strength recovery was probably the best they had ever seen. Now I'll be honest, I pushed it very hard because I wanted the best possible outcome but I'm fairly certain that there were times when the therapist was trying to make me cry in front of all the other people in the Vitality Center! When you bend something as far as it will go!!! Then don't bend it any further!!!!!! Or when your knee won't straighten completely out then don't stand up and lean on it!!!!!! Well you'll be glad to know that I never shed a tear, I did think about it a time or three but the most they would get out of me was some squirming or an awkward grunting noise. I say that with only a little humor but all things considered the staff there was great.
What I really want to focus on is my time off. I was off work for three months and naturally the first month I really couldn't do much at all except sit in the chair, ok eat in the chair ....sleep in the chair, as a matter of fact I rarely left the recliner. For surgery number 11 it was the most difficult yet, couldn't sleep through the night for the first 6 weeks, etc. etc. but what was wonderful was getting up every day and sitting in my recliner dirnking a cup of coffee and watching my sleepy eyed little girl walk around the corner with a grin and have her climb up in my lap to watch some morning cartoons. When I got far enough along to be able to take care of both of us I told my mother and mother-in-law we wouldn't need them to babysit for awhile and Jaden and I spent almost every day together when my wife went to work. I watched Spongebob and Phineas and Ferb marathons till I couldn't tell you what sports season it was and we played every game she ever had I think and at night she usually fell asleep in my arms. We were counting down the days until I went back to work and savored every moment that God gave us together. When I did go back to work I fell into the same routine of 12 - 16 hours days and once again was hardly ever home and family time was lost once again. Then as fate would have it I had need of another surgery, I know if I was a horse they would shoot me, seems an umbilical hernia doc said could have been a pin-hole from birth and it was just time. Listen I can't take much more, anyway I'm now off again going back to work Monday and have been able to enjoy some of that downtime with family once again and it reminded me of all the time spent at home earlier and it made me thankful all over again. I just wish I could figure out a way to have it without going under the knife! I work out and exercise I just should have taken better care of myself when I was younger but I wouldn't have listened then if you would have told me anyway. Oh well!
Hopefully you have some downtime with your family and can enjoy the blessings of God with them and hopefully it is without the necessity of a surgical procedure. :) I think God will intervene at times to create some space in life to enjoy our families and that we should foster and encourage this time truly well spent after all He is the one who established the 'family' and He knows full well the importance of it to ones well-being. I also believe there is a part of this that must be undertaken by us as individuals to stop hanging out with the guys or gals, climbing the corporate ladder or padding our bank accounts or resumes' and spend quality time with our husbands and wives, sons and daughters, moms and dads while we still have opportunity. Some of the most profound words in the Bible were spoken by James, "What is our life? It is but a vapor, there for but a little while then it is gone."
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Monday, June 29, 2009
'Him-prints', Teaching Pastor Yearly Report
We come to the end of another church year, actually to the end of our first year together. We have shared in a precious gift, the gift of life. I sincerely believe that there are no chance encounters where God is concerned. Nor do I consider it happenstance that my family has joined yours at Ashland First. I consider that each face I look upon in life has been an intentional meeting, one arranged by God or at least influenced by the choices we have made and hopefully those choices have been in line with His will. We get to know each other’s personalities and become accustomed to a familiar smile. We exchange a hearty handshake or feel the presence of a strong hand upon our shoulders. We know where we and others prefer to sit or where we usually meet them during our times of service and we miss them when they are not there because their presence is not only seen but also felt in our lives.
In the Church we have something so very special that the world cannot perceive. In the world many people make their presence known in our lives but that presence is not always a pleasant one, now be honest. In the Church this should not be so, for the imprint we make upon the lives of others, the lives of those to whom God has joined us in life, for a time and a season, should not be simply an imprint from the presence of another human being but a ‘Him-print’ from the soul of one redeemed by God’s grace, filled by His Holy Spirit and in the process of being transformed into the image of His dear Son. In each encounter of our lives we make an impression upon the lives around us. Sometimes they go unnoticed and sometimes they are casual but they are always there, positive, negative or neutral.
This past year has left us with profound absences in our lives as a church family from those whose presence we are no longer privileged to share. The strength of this void is a testimony to the ‘Him-print’ that they have left upon our lives. When we engaged them in conversation their words spoke of thanksgiving and blessing and when we looked into their eyes we knew we were looking through the windows of their souls. Genuine and sincere, they engaged us with grace and love and their smiles brought us peace and reassurance that their God, our God, was indeed working in each one of us to fashion us after the image of His Son. As I prepare this for you I can see their smiles and hear the gentleness and love in their voices can’t you? Our lives together with the ones we love could never be long enough and no matter how long we are graced by their presence we always long for more. God knows and understands this and has therefore made eternity in Heaven attainable through and by Calvary’s cross and the sacrifice of His Christ, our Savior. I look forward to seeing their smiling faces once again in that land where we shall never again be separated from the ones we love. I pray that as we glorify God for the gift of their lives touching ours that we would also use their lives as an example of His grace. That we appreciate the impression that they have made upon each one of us and that we likewise endeavor to leave our ‘Him-print’ upon those we encounter day by day.
I also believe that it is not only a person that leaves a ‘Him-print’ but a people as well. Positive, negative and neutral we can all identify peoples out of the past who have contributed to the kingdom as well as those who have taken away or perhaps done nothing at all. Take for example the churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation. The book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, which is also what the Church should be as they ‘reveal’ Christ to others in their communities through their witness, through worship, the preached Word and the ministries that meet real human needs with spiritual goals in mind. We see in the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor that there was one which Christ could not really say anything good about. Yet as He did with the other six He extends a promise to them as well that if they would repent He would grant them in particular that they share His throne. Of the seven churches we could say that four of them found themselves ‘middle of the road’ if you will. We could say that they were average, receiving both commendation and criticism from the Lord. Of those seven churches only two would rise above the rest to receive only commendation from the risen Christ. Only two of seven were completely faithful in representing Jesus Christ to the world, to their world.
What Christ was speaking of regarding these churches was their ‘Him-print.’ How were they representing Him to their families, their communities and ultimately to the rest of the world? As we can all read by Christ’s testimony towards each of them, some were representing Him in a carnal way. In other words the impression those Christians were leaving on the world around them was no different than the witness portrayed by those who were not saved and were living under the influences and vices of this temporal, finite world rather than the influences and direction of God’s Holy Spirit Which clearly is not the way the Lord of Heaven and earth should be represented, wouldn’t you agree? Only 2 of 7 churches were representing Christ in a divine spiritual way as He rightly should have been represented. Consider that for a moment, only 2 out of 7, that’s roughly 29% of those churches in the New Testament period who were truly leaving an accurate ‘Him-print’ of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, on the people and communities around them. I wonder how those figures would apply to the churches of our day. Would you imagine the percentages of churches who accurately and faithfully represent Christ is better or worse than it was then. Could we take that figure even further and apply it to Christians in general, I wonder. Could only 1 in 3 persons who call themselves Christians receive only commendation from our Lord?
We clearly have a choice, as individuals and as a church, on how well or how poorly we represent our Savior. I believe that Ashland First Church of the Nazarene and her people have been presented with a glorious opportunity to build upon the blessings of her past an everlasting legacy, one that truly represents the very purpose for why God has established her in this time and this city. I believe that we now press towards that mark and the high calling of God which He Himself has placed before us. I believe that we have set our trajectory, as did those two faithful churches, to rise above the average and take our place among those who excel, not in the eyes of the world but in the eyes of God Himself! I believe that we have devoted and shall continue to dedicate ourselves to leave an everlasting ‘Him-print’, evidenced by our love and passion towards all things Heavenly, upon our friends, our families and our city. To be His witnesses both here in our city and state, throughout our region and to the ends of the earth should we find ourselves there and may our continuing prayer be that we endeavor to fulfill this greatest of commissions with the diligence it deserves.
In His Love
Rev. Curt Skeens, Teaching Pastor
In the Church we have something so very special that the world cannot perceive. In the world many people make their presence known in our lives but that presence is not always a pleasant one, now be honest. In the Church this should not be so, for the imprint we make upon the lives of others, the lives of those to whom God has joined us in life, for a time and a season, should not be simply an imprint from the presence of another human being but a ‘Him-print’ from the soul of one redeemed by God’s grace, filled by His Holy Spirit and in the process of being transformed into the image of His dear Son. In each encounter of our lives we make an impression upon the lives around us. Sometimes they go unnoticed and sometimes they are casual but they are always there, positive, negative or neutral.
This past year has left us with profound absences in our lives as a church family from those whose presence we are no longer privileged to share. The strength of this void is a testimony to the ‘Him-print’ that they have left upon our lives. When we engaged them in conversation their words spoke of thanksgiving and blessing and when we looked into their eyes we knew we were looking through the windows of their souls. Genuine and sincere, they engaged us with grace and love and their smiles brought us peace and reassurance that their God, our God, was indeed working in each one of us to fashion us after the image of His Son. As I prepare this for you I can see their smiles and hear the gentleness and love in their voices can’t you? Our lives together with the ones we love could never be long enough and no matter how long we are graced by their presence we always long for more. God knows and understands this and has therefore made eternity in Heaven attainable through and by Calvary’s cross and the sacrifice of His Christ, our Savior. I look forward to seeing their smiling faces once again in that land where we shall never again be separated from the ones we love. I pray that as we glorify God for the gift of their lives touching ours that we would also use their lives as an example of His grace. That we appreciate the impression that they have made upon each one of us and that we likewise endeavor to leave our ‘Him-print’ upon those we encounter day by day.
I also believe that it is not only a person that leaves a ‘Him-print’ but a people as well. Positive, negative and neutral we can all identify peoples out of the past who have contributed to the kingdom as well as those who have taken away or perhaps done nothing at all. Take for example the churches in the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelation. The book is a revelation of Jesus Christ, which is also what the Church should be as they ‘reveal’ Christ to others in their communities through their witness, through worship, the preached Word and the ministries that meet real human needs with spiritual goals in mind. We see in the seven letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor that there was one which Christ could not really say anything good about. Yet as He did with the other six He extends a promise to them as well that if they would repent He would grant them in particular that they share His throne. Of the seven churches we could say that four of them found themselves ‘middle of the road’ if you will. We could say that they were average, receiving both commendation and criticism from the Lord. Of those seven churches only two would rise above the rest to receive only commendation from the risen Christ. Only two of seven were completely faithful in representing Jesus Christ to the world, to their world.
What Christ was speaking of regarding these churches was their ‘Him-print.’ How were they representing Him to their families, their communities and ultimately to the rest of the world? As we can all read by Christ’s testimony towards each of them, some were representing Him in a carnal way. In other words the impression those Christians were leaving on the world around them was no different than the witness portrayed by those who were not saved and were living under the influences and vices of this temporal, finite world rather than the influences and direction of God’s Holy Spirit Which clearly is not the way the Lord of Heaven and earth should be represented, wouldn’t you agree? Only 2 of 7 churches were representing Christ in a divine spiritual way as He rightly should have been represented. Consider that for a moment, only 2 out of 7, that’s roughly 29% of those churches in the New Testament period who were truly leaving an accurate ‘Him-print’ of Jesus Christ, their Lord and Savior, on the people and communities around them. I wonder how those figures would apply to the churches of our day. Would you imagine the percentages of churches who accurately and faithfully represent Christ is better or worse than it was then. Could we take that figure even further and apply it to Christians in general, I wonder. Could only 1 in 3 persons who call themselves Christians receive only commendation from our Lord?
We clearly have a choice, as individuals and as a church, on how well or how poorly we represent our Savior. I believe that Ashland First Church of the Nazarene and her people have been presented with a glorious opportunity to build upon the blessings of her past an everlasting legacy, one that truly represents the very purpose for why God has established her in this time and this city. I believe that we now press towards that mark and the high calling of God which He Himself has placed before us. I believe that we have set our trajectory, as did those two faithful churches, to rise above the average and take our place among those who excel, not in the eyes of the world but in the eyes of God Himself! I believe that we have devoted and shall continue to dedicate ourselves to leave an everlasting ‘Him-print’, evidenced by our love and passion towards all things Heavenly, upon our friends, our families and our city. To be His witnesses both here in our city and state, throughout our region and to the ends of the earth should we find ourselves there and may our continuing prayer be that we endeavor to fulfill this greatest of commissions with the diligence it deserves.
In His Love
Rev. Curt Skeens, Teaching Pastor
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